Russia and China eye NATO s Arctic Achilles heel japantoday.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from japantoday.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Conceived in almost hysterical circumstances in Paris in 1920, the Spitsbergen treaty gives the citizens of 46 countries the right to exploit the Arctic archipelago which is now officially known by its Norwegian name of Svalbard. Before then it was regarded as "terra nullus", meaning owned by nobody.
It was possibly the only international treaty ever conceived in bed by two gay men. The two key diplomats who drew up the treaty in Paris in the aftermath of World War I were having an adulterous affair at the time.